David McCann belief Ulster 'should be taken seriously'

Ulster’s David McCann. (Photo by Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker)

Ulster will travel to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening (5PM start) to face Leinster in the last eight.

Richie Murphy’s side finished sixth in the table after picking up a losing bonus point in Munster last weekend and Ulster have also qualified for next season’s Champions Cup.

“I think just how quickly we have been able to advance in our process and get into a position where I think we are definitely competitive – and we should be taken seriously in the playoffs – is credit to Richie,” said McCann. “And credit to the team that they have got behind the messages and all the other coaches and how well they have been in the last two months.

“It has really accelerated our process, but it still is a process.

"We’re going in with confidence, but we’ll see how we go.

“Watch us...you can see we have made an impression over the last four or five weeks and the performances have got better off that.

“It was a good win against Leinster and that was a good performance Saturday...we didn’t get the result in Munster, but we can take confidence going into next week.

“We’ve played Leinster away a lot and beaten them a couple of times and lost a couple of times, so we know what it takes.

“We know if we go down there and you are not 100 per cent and you get caught cold there is no chance at all, they will show you the door.

"And we know that.

“All good teams in the knockouts raise their game, playing better opposition raises your game and I think that is just natural.

"You rise to the occasion but, at the same time, you have building blocks there to be able for you to do that.

"So your training has to be good to allow you to rise to that occasion and be calm in the moment.”

The 29-24 defeat at Thomond Park snapped a four-game winning streak for Ulster - but there were a few mitigating circumstances.

Murphy had named an unchanged side from the one that beat Leinster heading into the Munster meeting.

However, Stuart McCloskey and Ethan McIlroy were forced to withdraw before kick-off, while starting locks Al O’Connor and Kieran Treadwell departed injured in the first quarter.

“I think Munster’s bench had a big impact and our bench maybe came on too early in the game and then we lost our structure a wee bit into the wind,” said McCann. “And if you lose your structure you lose your discipline, so I think it was a combination of their bench impacting and us losing our way.”

McCann had special praise for his back row colleagues Cormac Izuchukwu and Nick Timoney.

“’Izzy’ is obviously special at times, he is so physical and so athletic and is able to do things that other people aren’t able to do,” said McCann. “I think Nick is just really good at everything.

"So it is definitely handy having them two on the pitch.

“He (Nick) does speak a decent bit but it is more the way he speaks and then the way he plays people can really get behind and he is very straight to the point.

“He won’t fluff anything, he is a very direct person, so people definitely listen when he is speaking and watch when he is doing things.”

McCann wants to end the season with a trophy.

“Personally, it has been good, I played well at the start of the year then got injured which was disappointing and then found my way back into a bit of form,” he said. “It is definitely positive in some ways, especially when there were other pressures going on.

"I feel with a strong finish to the season I’d be happy with how my season has gone from a personal point of view.”